This invention relates to a device for supporting and positioning a workpiece for a drilling, boring, or cutting operation at a desired angle relative to the workpiece, and particularly an improved supporting device which allows the operator to expeditiously position the workpiece with the cutting tool, without requiring additional calculations to correlate the supporting surface location to the workpiece location.
Devices have been used in the past for supporting workpieces such as metal blocks, which are bored and ground into particular devices by drills and the like. One of the most time consuming aspect of, for example, drilling a particular passage in a workpiece at a given compound angle, has been the calculations for correlating the workpiece specifications to the support surface to align the cutting tool with respect to the workpiece. It is conventional that the angular measurements given on blue prints or the like are with respect to the workpiece itself. One of the deficiencies, however, in the work support devices in the past has been that there has been no fixed reference point provided on the device for all three dimensions to allow direct correspondence between the given angular measurements of work to be performed on the workpiece and the mounting surface on the work support device. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,538,640, issued to A. H. Click shows a work support surface which can be adjusted in all three dimensions with the workpiece being supported above the reference axes in the device. Although reference calibration and degrees are shown for all three planes, there is no direct correlation between the location of the workpiece and all three reference axes of the device. This is especially critical when working with compound angles.
The present invention overcomes deficiencies in the prior art by providing a work supporting platform that is calibrated in all three dimensions directly with a workpiece supported thereupon which allows for angular settings on the device of the supported workpiece which are directly correspondent to a particular reference point and surface on the workpiece.